Ukraine asks the West to tighten Russian oil prices

Content of the article

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office on Saturday called for a cap on Russian oil prices lower than that agreed to by Western supporters of Ukraine, while Russian officials called the cap $60 the barrel of harmful for free and stable oil. markets.

Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s bureau chief, wrote on social media that the price cap set by the European Union, Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan and the United States on Friday does not didn’t go far enough. The cap is expected to come into effect on Monday, along with an EU embargo on Russian oil shipped by sea.

Content of the article

Content of the article

« It would be necessary to lower it to $30 to destroy the enemy’s economy more quickly, » Yermak wrote on Telegram, claiming a position also favored by Poland – one of the president’s main critics of the war. Russian Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.

The Russian Embassy in Washington insisted that Russian oil « will continue to be in demand » and criticized the price limit as « reshaping the basic principles of how free markets work ». A message on the Embassy’s Telegram channel predicted that the cap per barrel would lead to « a generalized increase in uncertainty and higher costs for commodity consumers. »

The price cap is intended to exert economic pressure on Russia and further reduce its ability to fund a war that has killed countless civilians and combatants, driven millions of Ukrainians from their homes and strained the economy. worldwide for more than nine months.

Content of the article

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that since Friday, Russian forces have fired five missiles, carried out 27 airstrikes and launched 44 bombardments against military positions and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president’s office, said the attacks killed one civilian and injured four others in Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. According to the British Ministry of Defence, Russian forces ‘continue to invest much of their overall military effort and firepower’ around the small town of Donestsk, Bakhmut, which they have spent weeks trying to capture.

In Kherson province in southern Ukraine, whose capital of the same name was liberated by Ukrainian forces three weeks ago following a Russian retreat, Governor Yaroslav Yanushkevich said evacuations civilians stuck in Russian-held territory across the Dnieper would resume temporarily.

Content of the article

Russian forces retreated to the east bank of the river last month. Yanushkevich said the ban on crossing the waterway would be lifted during the day for three days for Ukrainian citizens who « did not have time to leave the temporarily occupied territory ». His announcement referred to a « possible intensification of hostilities in this area ».

Kherson is one of four regions that Putin illegally annexed in September and pledged to defend as Russian territory. From their new positions, Russian troops have regularly shelled the city of Kherson and nearby infrastructure in recent days, leaving many residents without power. Running water remained unavailable in much of the city.

Other areas annexed in violation of international law are Donetsk, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia.

Ukrainian authorities also reported heavy fighting in Luhansk and Russian shelling of the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine, from which Russian soldiers mostly withdrew in September.

The mayor of the northeastern city of Kharkiv said some 500 apartment buildings were damaged beyond repair and nearly 220 schools and kindergartens were damaged or destroyed. He estimated the cost of the damage at $9 billion.

——

Inna Varenytsia from Kherson, Ukraine contributed to this report.